How to Play Video Poker

While many players will lean towards playing popular casino games such as slot machines and blackjack, roulette, or other table games, one of the most popular games that you can find in a casino is actually those fun video poker games. Not only is this a great casino game that many players love, but it also requires some skill to play as well in order to make a consistent profit from playing video poker. This is a game that is a bit of a mixture of the standard table games and slot machines to give players a great mix of excellent gambling. You’ll find that the strategy behind it features many different things, and we are going to take an in-depth look at the strategy behind how to play video poker. You can find as many as 100 different variations of video poker out there as well, so don’t think that video poker is just one straight forward style of game!

How to Play Video Poker

After you put your money into the machine, you will be dealt five cards on the machine that you are playing on and players are allowed to take up to five additional cards when playing video poker. So once you look at your hand you’ll have the option to decide whether you want to keep the cards by pressing that “hold” button on the machine, and if you hold cards and then press deal after that, you are going to be dealt different cards to replace whichever ones that you did not hold. After that, your five card hand will decide how much you get paid out based on how much you ended up betting. You will have the option to bet different amounts based on number of credits, and the payouts of course will increase a good amount for the more credits that you bet, especially if you end up hitting a big time hand.

Drawing Cards

You’ll find that just like in any type of poker, when you decide to draw cards that they are going to be completely random. After you get the five cards you have to decide what type of hand that you want to go for based on what you have to start with. So what this means is that if you end up getting three Aces in your hand, going for that fourth Ace is definitely the way to go in order to go for that big time payout. Most machines are going to payout prizes when a player ends up getting a hand that is higher than a pair of Jacks typically. Not all decisions are as simple as going for quads, because there are often times where you are going to have a hand like a straight draw or flush draw, or possibly a pair of Aces, and you have to decide whether you want to go for three of a kind or go for the straight or the flush. Players can bet many different amounts depending on the type of machine that they are playing, but make sure that you are playing at the limits that you feel the most comfortable with.

Payout Tables

The payout table for a video poker machine will typically be right in the front of the machine for you to be able to see as you play. Many games feature jokers and other options in order to make the game more interesting and do change the payout table a bit as well. Payouts are set based on what the machine pays for the different combinations of hands that you can win it, but you’ll find that the bulk of video poker machines will not feature any type of progressive jackpots to players. You can find that there are many ways to help understand the payouts behind different pay tables for machines as well, because learning to read the pay table is something that can help make it so that you play the machines that give you the best odds.

One of the many reasons players enjoy playing video poker over other games is because of the fact that it’s just really you and the machine. There is no one that you have to beat like playing at a regular poker table, and there are also no dealers that you are with or against as well. You can play video poker at your own speed, and can see a good number of hands consecutively when playing this game also. Players who like playing slot machines are typically fans of playing video poker as well, mainly because of how similar they are, but as we’ve mentioned before, video poker does require more strategy than slot machines will. If you’ve never played video poker before be sure to check out one of the games on your favorite online casino or at a live casino next time you are there!